The Burlington Free Press from Burlington, Vermont • Page 11

5 urlmgt0tt Deaths 2B Court News 3B Tuesday, November 1 1 983 -V' --I 1 i t'C I ty'rV0 hi -3. Free Press Photos by IRENE FERTIK North End Will Hear Loud 'Jets' By SCOTT MACKAY Free Press Staff Writer Next week, residents of Burlington's Old North End living near the Intervale will be hearing some loud noises, much like jet planes taking off. The city-owned Burlington Electric Department will be blasting steam through pipes at the McNeil Generating Station, the 50-mega-watt electricity plant under construction on the Intervale. Cleaning the pipes will take about a week and the loud blasts will occur three or four times a day for between three and five minutes each time, according to Tim Cro-nin, department spokesman. "It will be loud, similar to standing near a large jet aircraft taking off," Cronin said.

"We regret it has to be done in that area, but there really is no other way to do it." Pipes must be free of dirt, machine parts, nuts or bolts before the plant's 50-megawatt turbine can be tested, according to Cronin. "If you didn't do this you would have a major problem," he said. "The superheated steam that spins the turbine is all that can hit" the turbine blades, according to Cronin. "No solid material can touch those blades." The noises will be caused by the huge blasts of compressed air that will be forced through the pipes to clean them, he said. The cleaning will be done only from 8 a.m.

to 5:30 p.m., according to Cronin. "We're hopeful it will only take a week and hope it will not have to be done on a Saturday," he said. Cronin said the cleaning "definitely" will not be done on Sunday. Alderman Zoe Breiner, Citizens-Ward 2, who represents the neighborhood around Manhattan Drive, which is close to the plant, said there have been a series of noise problems from construction of the wood chip-fired plant. "One time when they were running compacting equipment, the entire hill was vibrating, people's homes were vibrating," Breiner said.

She also said she has complained to Burlington Electric officials about loading wood chips as late as 11 p.m. Cronin said most of the noise associated with construction has come fromn railroad cars bringing in wood chips. When the plant was licensed, the state Public Service Board required Burlington Electric to haul in at least 75 percent of the chips by rail, rather than truck, after the city of Winooski objected that trucks loaded with chips would cause traffic problems in downtown Winooski. Turn to LOUD, Page 2B Ag Panel Testimony Beginning By DEBORAH SLINE Free Press Capital Bureau MONTPELIER A retired federal worker told the House Agriculture Committee Monday that an administration panel seemed hostile when it questioned him about Vermont's meat inspection program last spring. "I felt very much ill at ease before that committee," said Joseph Giallombardo former animal health technician with the U.S.

Department of Agriculture. "To me, it was a hostile committee." He said questions were put less sharply to witnesses critical of the program. Giallombardo was one of 35 witnesses questioned by a special administration team after the meat inspection program was wracked by charges of misconduct and mismanagement. He was the first witness formally questioned by the House Agriculture Committee since it was given subpoena power to investigate the meat inspection scandal. Nearly two dozen other witnesses will be questioned during four days of hearings next week.

The committee is probing effectiveness of the meat inspection program and also trying to determine whether the Snelling administration's review was "reasonable and fair." In the face of the committee's investigation, Administration Secretary David Wilson issued lengthy summaries Monday of the process used by his investigators. He said the team did not make a certain finding unless there was documentary evidence or corroborating testimony from at least three or four witnesses. Wilson also said that the concern one unidentified witness expressed about the fairness of the interview was unjustified. He said the transcript showed "there was a reasonable effort on the part of the audit team to bring out both favorable and unfavorable information from the employee concerning the program." The Agriculture Committee spent much of Monday poring through 1,500 pages of secret testimony which Wilson released last week. The committee intends to keep those transcripts confidential, at Wilson's request.

"We can't let anything out," said House Agriculture Chairman Gordon Booth, R-Barre. "It's for our own use when we ask questions." The committee questioned Giallombardo in depth Monday about the performance of David Walker, livestock director, who was fired and then reinstated by the administration. Giallombardo praised Turn to LEGISLATORS, Page 2B Cheddi Sargeant, upper left, a Barbados native, and Julia Alvarez, originally from the Dominican Republic, speak to aldermen Monday in support of a resolution to stop U.S. military involvement in Grenada and Nicaragua. One of those opposing the resolution was Rep.

Pete Chag-non, R-Burlington. More than 130 people were in City Hall for the meeting. After nearly two hours of discussion, alderrmen rejected the resolution in a 5-5 vote. Council Votes 5-5 on Grenada dressed to President Reagan and the U.S. Congress.

It stated that aldermen urged "that United States troops be withdrawn from Grenada and that military action against Nicaragua be ceased immediately." It also described the people of Burlington as "a free, independent and moral people who oppose imperialistic actions and the domination of the weak stand on a foreign policy issue. The board also voted to uphold Mayor Bernard Sanders' veto of a measure tc develop a South End bicycle path. Aldermen then passed a new resolution that gives the Community and Economic Development Office the lead role in acquiring land and constructing and maintaining a city bike path. The Grenada measure was ad by the strong wherever it occurs." The resolution's sponsor, Alderman Terrill Bouricius, Citizens-Ward 2, said after the vote that he does not intend to attempt to reintroduce it in a different form. "If we get involved in a long war in Grenada, two years from now, we may get the resolu- Turn to ALDERMEN, Page 2B By DEBORAH SCHOCH Free Press Staff Writer Despite lobbying from 130 supporters, Burlington aldermen Monday night rejected a resolution calling for withdrawal of U.S.

troops from Grenada. The measure failed in a 5-5 tie vote, following prolonged debate by the Board of Aldermen as to whether the city should take a Court Rules Vt. Has No Hydro Project Authority over the Chace Mill project pending in the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City mirrored the Springfield case. Winooski officials have argued that the proposed 12-megawatt project on the Winooski River should be scaled down; the state filed a case arguing the Public Service Board should have jurisdiction.

Winooski Mayer Donald R. Brunelle declined comment, saying he wanted to talk about the decision with City Attorney William Wargo. Wargo could not be reached for comment. King said there was little chance that the state's appeal on the second case would be successful. One reason, she said, was that the same two judges who ruled against the state in the Springfield case were sitting on the Chace Mill case.

She said the state would await the outcome of the Chace Mill case before deciding its next move. three-tiered federal court process. "I think what this means is that some of the peculiarly local cbncerns and some of the criteria are going to get a shorter shrift than they would if the state had a review," said Harriet A. King, the Public Service Board's attorney. "Let's put it this way," she said.

"There will be no requirement that a utility that wished to develop a hydroelectric project will need state approval." The Supreme Court, over the objections of Justice William H. Rehnquist, kept intact the law that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has sole control over hydro projects on navigable waters. Rehnquist voted to hear arguments in the case, but four votes are needed to grant such a review. Springfield applied to the commission in 1978 for a license, but the commission is unlikely to hand down a ruling until next year. Springfield's last-stand defense will come Nov.

29 during the commission's final hearing on the project. The 30-megawatt proposal has cost residents more than $3 million in legal and architectural fees, and has zoomed in projected costs from an initial $60 million to estimates now over $100 million. Springfield selectmen Chairman Kenneth Robinson and Town Attorney John Parker declined comment on Monday's development. Selectman J. Timothy Van Zandt said, however, the decision finally gives the town some options.

One option is to develop plans to scale down the proposal. "I guess this was just expected news," said Robert C. Young, general manager of the Burlington Electric Department. Young and Burlington and Winooski officials were watching the Monday action closely because litigation By JOHN DONNELLY Free Press Staff Writer The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday on a Vermont appeal that the federal government has sole authority to license hydroelectric projects on navigable waterways.

The refusal to hear the case, brought by the Public Service Board against Springfield's Black River hydroelectric project, sounded a death knell for the state's argument that local opinion could be given more expression if the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission did not have sole jurisdiction. The decision affected not only the Springfield proposal which town officials confirmed last week they had privately decided to kill after litigation was finished but several other hydro projects in the state, including Burlington's Chace Mill hydroelectric project, still a step behind the Springfield case in the Frightening Young Spirits Descend on Auditorium that will happen. "They were excited about coming. They're just amazed with the whole thing." "I have an apple and a Snoopy bag," Tina said proudly, shoving her bag forward. "And I'm going to get some candy." The fourth annual Officer Friendly Halloween Party at Memorial Auditorium went off with a bang and a lot of pops and cheers at the various games and music upstairs furnished free by The Boyz.

The auditorium was filled with witches, fairies, television and movie characters. Although Halloween is supposed to be for children, a lot of parents took the opportunity to do some masquerading of their own. Some dressed to compliment their child's costume, such as a 2-foot-tall and a 6-foot-tall pair of hobos. One of the party's highlights was a trip two blocks to City Hall. City officials were surprised when 150 children trooped in at the beginning of the Board of Aldermen's meeting to thank the city for its role in the party.

Turn to STRANGE, Page 2B By JODIE PECK Free Press Staff Writer Melinda Monniere, 2Vj, of Burlington looked too sweet to be a witch. The pint-size demon explored her first Halloween party at a mad pace. She stopped abruptly in the middle of the Memorial Auditorium floor, looked around for a second and was off again to inspect costumes and look for candy. Her mother, Tammy, was just a step behind her. Mrs.

Monniere said she did not want to take the little girl out on the street and her daughter was having much more fun playing games and watching other children. Tammy and Tina Patno, identical 4-year-old twins, stood in the middle of the floor gazing around silently until something caught their eye. Then they would explode, "Mommy, mommy, look," gesturing wildly at some outlandish costume. Their mother, Pamelo Patno, said she never has taken the girls trick-or-treating on the street "because of the situation. You never know what could be in the candy.

You know down here that nothing like Free Press Photo by IRENE FERTIK children thanked city officials Joline Brown, 7, of Winooski hands Gear as package of candy to Alderman Allen for party,.